Lincoln Memorial

I took a quest to the Lincoln Memorial and Arlington National Cemetery.  Now, when I say quest, I mean quest.  However, in this situation, you don’t need a magic sword, shield, and flute.  You need to be equipped with an MP3 player, sunglasses, and water.  I cannot stress it enough how important carrying water is around here during the summer.  If you don’t carry water and you are outside walking around for more than an hour, the thirst will hit you.  You’re body will send a signal to your brain saying “Hey! If we don’t get any liquid here soon, we are going to dehydrate and collapse.”  I’ve seen two people passed out on the street with paramedics since I’ve been here. 

Another important thing about carrying your own water is that you won’t have to buy said water on the street.  This is because if you buy on the street, you are going to be paying 3 bucks for a dollar bottle of water from some random person carrying water around in a cooler.  Highway robbery, don’t you think?  So, as a tip for you, invest in a water jug, preferably stainless steel because I don’t trust reusable plastic.  Also, don’t expect that water to stay cold longer than 10 minutes.  The second you walk out of the Metro and the sun begins beating on your container, no matter how much ice you put into that thing, it’s going to be gone and you’re water is going to pretty much be room temperature.  However, room temperature water is still water and you’ll be happy you have it.

It gets hot here.  I mean hot.  We’ve had more 90 degree days here than I’ve probably experienced in my whole life in Pittsburgh.  Not to mention that Pittsburgh usually has a lot of clouds so the sun is usually covered, which protects you somewhat.  That does not happen much in DC.  The sky, at least as long as I have been here, is usually free of clouds unless it’s forecast to rain.  So there’s no escape from Mr. Sun and all its wonderful rays beating the life out of you.  Anyway, let’s continue on with my epic adventure.

In order to get a better grip on the city, I try to walk places.  That’s how I learn directions to places.  So I got off the Metro at the Metro Center and walked to the Lincoln Memorial.  On the way to the Lincoln Memorial, I stopped the World War II Memorial.  It’s very nice.  There is a giant fountain in the middle and each column has the name of a state on it.  When you go, you can see quotes from many different people on the walls and weary travelers soaking their feet in the pool.

If you want to see how far that is, you can look it up on Google Maps.  Needless to say, I was a bit pooped from that.  However, once I got there, there were a lot of good photo ops around.  That includes the goal of that first leg of the trip, Mr. Lincoln.  I must also point out that the geese that hang out next to the reflecting pool are not scared of anyone.   After making it to the memorial, I hung out on the stairs for while listening to some music from my mp3 player and gazing over my view.  Once I felt recuperated enough, I began the trek over to the cemetery.

The cemetery isn’t that far away from the memorial; you just go behind it and cross the bridge that crosses the Potomac over to Arlington.  What needs to be mentioned about the cemetery is that it is a giant hill.  So if you want to get to see the Kennedys' graves along with the Tomb of the Unknowns, be prepared to hike.  When I got to the top and saw the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, I decided to call it a day.  Luckily, there is a Metro station at entrance of the cemetery so I was able to take the Blue Line back to Metro Center and transfer over to the Red Line so I could get back to the apartment and give my nice feet a rest.